


We Do This Together

by WardenRoot



Category: Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Genre: F/F, a lil angst, but a happy ending, post 1x08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24081235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WardenRoot/pseuds/WardenRoot
Summary: The girls are woken up in the middle of the night with orders to search out a member of the Spree loose on the base.
Relationships: Raelle Collar/Scylla Ramshorn
Comments: 11
Kudos: 243





	We Do This Together

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for them, so I hope they're not too OOC and that y'all enjoy it 😅  
> I got way more invested in them than I planned so I just had to write them something, especially after how devastated these last few episodes have left me
> 
> I have literally no idea what Motherland will throw at us next, though I'm pretty sure it's not this, I just randomly had the idea and it needed to be written

“Wake up, ladies! It's time for your first proper assignment.” The sound of Anacostia’s voice coupled with the bang of the door being violently pushed open tears Raelle out of her slumber. “Now, ladies!” 

Raelle groans as she throws a glance out the window, finding nothing but darkness on the other side. Tally stirs above her and Abigail practically jumps out of bed, standing perfectly as she looks at Anacostia for further instruction. 

“Meet outside in five minutes, scourges at the ready.” And with that, Anacostia disappears, leaving them to get dressed. The three of them share a confused look, but then Abigail, pushing down the doubt Raelle knows she's been feeling ever since Citydrop, yells at them to get ready. 

Soon enough, all three of them are out in the cool night air with Anacostia standing tall in front of them. Raelle half-assumes it's a training session when she starts talking, but the lack of everyone else in Circe hall has Raelle's gut coiling. 

“A member of the Spree is running around Fort Salem! We don't know what kind of damage they've done, but we can't let them escape! You have permission to use everything at your disposal to neutralize the target, but they're more valuable alive than dead!” It would have sounded like a standard training assignment if not for the fact that Anacostia isn't asking them to hold back. 

“Shouldn't there be more people looking?” Tally pipes up, more challenge in her form than Raelle ever thought she would see Tally inhabit where a superior is concerned. 

“You're almost ready for War College. Consider this your last test.” Something, in the very depths of Anacostia, wavers, just for a second but it’s enough for Raelle to notice, and the pit in her stomach grows. Ever since… she can't even bring herself to say the name, but ever since she found out the truth, she's had half a mind to go back to her original plan and get deployed early, and she probably would have if not for her connection with her unit. Whatever happens, the three of them will face it together. 

Anacostia tilts her head, obviously listening to something else, before addressing them again. “We think they're hiding in the forest. Move out!”

Almost out of instinct, Raelle, Abigail, and Tally run into action. Something tugs at the back of Raelle's mind, begging her to listen as they break through the forest border, but she can't for the life of her decipher its meaning. 

Abigail throws out some orders, giving out different areas to search to cover ground more quickly. 

“Don’t you think it’s weird we’re the only ones out searching?” Raelle asks before they can part ways.

“You heard Anacostia, _this_ is how we get into War College,” Abigail answers, clenching her jaw, but not out of her usual annoyance. She’s trying her best not to waver, not to question her superiors, not to let recent events tear up everything she’s been raised to believe… 

“Yeah but if there’s an actual Spree member loose on base, I mean how did they even get in—”

“It’s obviously because it’s a training exercise.”

“Or it’s because they were captured and escaped.” Raelle stops at Tally’s carefully spoken words. It _would_ explain the how. This new information clings to the front of Raelle’s mind.

“Whatever the reason, _we_ have to find them, and that’s not happening with us standing around here.” Abigail makes sure to catch both their gazes, and Raelle gives her a small nod. If for nothing else, she’ll do this task for her unit. “Move out!” The three of them stomp their feet, and then they’re off, searching through the forest on their own.

Raelle walks through the woods with no real aim, other than to keep moving vaguely in the direction Abigail had pointed. Her scourge is in her hands, ready to be used, but she highly doubts that with just three people searching, she’ll have much use of it. Her mind keeps turning with reasons _why_ only the three of them were sent out. If a Spree agent is loose on the base, surely capturing them is top priority. But General Alder and Anacostia were fine with sending only three cadets who haven’t even finished basic yet out to look? Maybe Abigail was right and this is only a training exercise — it’s not like waking them up with no warning hasn’t happened before.

As her thoughts run on, Raelle takes another step, only to feel something firm over her foot, and the next thing she knows, she’s crashing onto the ground. She drops her scourge to brace herself, escaping the fall with nothing more than a new bruise. She rubs at her forearm as she rolls over on her back, coughing as she catches her breath. Sitting up, she reaches out for the thing that had tripped her, and her hand wraps around the familiar texture of rope. Raelle frowns, pulling it taut and finding it tied around a nearby tree. Looking around herself properly, she gasps. She hasn’t been back here since that first time, but she’d recognize it anytime. It’s where… Scylla had taken her to show her the salva.

_Scylla_.

The name brings nothing but a burning sensation behind Raelle’s eyes. She still doesn’t want to believe that everything they had was a lie, but with the memory she’d seen from Tally and her own memory from that cell… There only is one conclusion, really.

The feelings flooding her sting too much, and Raelle tries to draw her focus back on the task at hand, pushing herself up from the ground. In an effort to turn her attention to who they’re hunting, she plays through everything that’s happened since they were abruptly woken.

It takes her two steps before she freezes on the spot.

They’re running after a Spree agent loose on base.

Someone who _might_ have escaped capture.

All the blood drains from Raelle’s face as she adds two and two together, finally realizing why the three of them were chosen.

They’re not just hunting a Spree agent.

They’re hunting _Scylla_.

She supposes they figured that the three of them are the people who should hate her the most. And they probably don’t want it getting out that they had a spree member attending their school, _learning_ from them, without them having a clue.

Raelle should want to capture her, to make her pay for everything she’s done. And yet, she doesn’t know what she’d do if they met. Fighting fake-Scylla had been tough, but Raelle _knew_ it wasn’t Scylla, despite the face of the person she’d come to love looking back at her. Being up against the real Scylla… 

Raelle knows she doesn’t deserve her care, doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. But how is she supposed to fight the person who pulled her back from the brink? The person she gave herself to, body and soul?

She doesn’t know if she wants Scylla to escape or for one of her sisters to capture her, but she knows she doesn’t want a part in it. Knows that she couldn’t handle it.

Maybe she should just sit back down, tie a rope around her ankle, and pretend she’s back to flying, without a care in the world. 

The sound of a twig snapping turns her attention back to her surroundings.

“Hello?” she calls out, tightening the grip on her scourge as she looks for any sign of movement. Nothing happens, but it’s like the air changes, and out of pure instinct, Raelle takes off running. After about a minute, a dark silhouette comes into view, running in the opposite direction from her, and without thinking Raelle whips with her scourge, the end of it skillfully wrapping around the person’s leg and making them fall. Raelle tells herself it could be anyone as she pulls her scourge back, ready to strike as she advances.

The person now on the ground turns around, a wicked, _soulless_ smile on their lips as their gaze searches Raelle out in the low moonlight filtering through the trees. The smile drops when blue eyes meet her own, and her own name falls from their lips so quietly and unbelievingly that Raelle thinks she might have imagined it, might have _wished_ it hard enough to trick herself.

She had expected a fight, much like the one after Citydrop. Her scourge is still at the ready in her hands, and for just a moment, the image in front of her changes to the dead fake-Scylla, right before their body had changed, the magic having left them.

But this Scylla is very much alive, and looking at Raelle like she doesn’t fully believe she’s there. “Raelle,” she says again, her voice nearly breaking as she pushes herself up with her arms.

“Scyl.” The scourge drops to the ground as Raelle falls to her knees, her hands immediately reaching out for Scylla. Scylla tries to pull her close, but Raelle resists, furrowing her brow as she rolls her body back. “Scyl, you have to go. They’ll kill you.” There is no doubt in Raelle’s mind that handing Scylla back to General Alder will result in nothing less than her death.

Scylla laughs with no humor. “Go where? General Alder or the Spree will find me no matter where I run.”

“But the Spree—”

“Would kill me the moment they got their hands on me.”

“No.” As much as Raelle wants Scylla far, far away from the Spree, surely she would at least be safe with them? “Why would they…”

Scylla reaches out for her again, pressing her palm ever so gently against her cheek, and this time Raelle allows it, leaning her head into the touch. “Because I betrayed them.”

“When?”

“Do you really need me to say it?”

“ _When_ , Scyl?” 

“When I decided to spend the last moments of my freedom dancing with the girl I love instead of handing her over to them.” It’s what Raelle already knew she’d say, but actually hearing the confirmation leaving Scylla’s lips breaks her, letting all her unshed tears flow down her cheeks. “In hindsight, I betrayed them long before that, the moment I let you into my life and you wrapped yourself tight inside my heart, Raelle Collar.” A small smile breaks through Raelle’s tears as she finally surges forward, smoothing her palms across Scylla’s cheeks as she pulls her into a kiss.

“But if the Spree didn’t help you escape, how did you?” Raelle had seen the way they’d locked her up, and as proficient as Scylla is, she doubts she would be able to escape on her own.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Raelle only frowns, prompting Scylla to go on. “Your dear general put this all into play, because she wanted to test your loyalty. She wanted you to bring me back, to prove that your life belongs to her.”

Raelle’s jaw clenches, and all she wants in that moment is to have General Alder at the other end of her scourge.

“Raelle, you have to do it.” Raelle’s gaze flits to Scylla’s. _Surely she must have heard wrong._ “If you don’t, they’ll send you out as soon as they can as war fodder. You’ll _die_.”

“If I take you back, they’ll kill you.”

“My fate is sealed either way—”

“NO!” Raelle doesn’t mean for the word to come out with so much _power_ , but it draws a small smile on Scylla’s lips as she’s pulled her into another kiss.

“I love you,” Scylla whispers. “Please don’t ever forget that.” Her voice grows smaller, _accepting_ , and Raelle doesn’t understand why until she hears the sound of someone approaching. Turning around, she finds Tally and Abigail observing them. Abigail’s face twists into fury and Raelle jumps to her feet, putting herself protectively in front of Scylla.

“Raelle,” Abigail starts, her nostrils flaring as she looks past her.

“It wasn’t her!” Raelle takes a step closer, preparing herself to do whatever it takes to get Abigail to see it. Scylla had been too busy betraying the Spree to help them plan an attack on Abigail’s family, and one way or another, Raelle will make her see it.

“Enough!” _Shit_. Raelle glances to her side to see Anacostia approaching them. She almost expects General Alder to appear next to her, but the space around her seems void of anyone human.

“I’m not going to let you take her.” Raelle’s heart is beating a mile a minute, but she refuses to back down.

“I know.” Anacostia knits her brow together as she looks between the four of them. “But if you do this, this base will no longer be safe for you. _Any_ of you.”

Raelle’s gaze jumps to Abigail, who looks as conflicted as Raelle has ever felt. She takes a step closer, and Raelle has to fight the urge to push her back. 

“Did you really not know?” she asks, turning a steely gaze on where Scylla is still sitting on the ground.

“No.” Scylla shakes her head, grabbing onto Raelle’s hand as she pulls herself up.

“You believe in her, Collar?” Abigail’s eyes find Raelle’s, and all she sees behind them is complete and utter trust.

“I do.” Ralle looks back at Scylla, slotting their fingers together. “Tal?”

Tally looks at Scylla for what feels like an eternity. Raelle can’t tell what she’s thinking, and it terrifies her. “If Raelle trusts her, so do I.” Raelle nearly cries for the second time at her unit’s support.

All eyes turn to Anacostia, who gives them all a solemn nod. “Then we better get moving, Privates, we don’t have a lot of time before Scylla’s absence will be noted.” Four jaws drop at Anacostia’s words.

“You helped her escape?” Raelle asks, growing more sure by the minute that she’s dreaming.

Anacostia only smiles conspiratorially at them before she turns around and starts walking. The four of them scramble to keep up with her, curious about where they’ll go. But more than anything, Raelle is grateful to all of them, to her _family_.


End file.
